Article: PRINCESS GOES release new single BLUR from their highly anticipated sophomore full-length album ‘Come Of Age’
Article from XS Noize
Princess Goes, the trio led by the charismatic showmanship and signature voice of vocalist, lyricist, musician and actor Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under, Lazarus) alongside keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen (Blondie, Cyndi Lauper) and drummer Peter Yanowitz (The Wallflowers, Morningwood), have released the second single “BLUR”.
The track is taken from their highly anticipated sophomore full-length album, ‘Come Of Age’ (out 15 September via SO In De Goot).
Featuring Michael C. Hall’s distinctive vocals and leftfield narrative style, he sets a surreal scene here: “At best I’m but a blur, if you remember me at all. Fuzzy memories playing on your basement VCR. Found the final payphone, dropped my change and made the call. Picked up – whispered last room on the left. End of the hall.”
“‘BLUR’ opens with a classic Juno-106 synth drone, evoking the early 80’s, flirting with the finality of its own fruition as layers of more synth, bass guitar and drums reveal themselves,” says Matt Katz-Bohen of the track. “Michael’s poignant, aching lyrics and melody go from soft to epic, culminating in an MGMT/Human League chorus of loving synth transcendence: Baby I’m full grown now.”
Crafting a sound all their own that vividly comes to life on stage during their captivating, hypnotic and impassioned live performances, the band have also announced a UK Headline Tour, which kicks off on 26 September in Manchester.
‘Come Of Age’ is the trio’s most accessible yet innovative work to date, replete with songs that traverse a thrilling and often surprising sonic and lyrical landscape. There’s a clear cohesiveness to the 12 songs on the album (full tracklisting can be found below) that manage to be all at once catchy and intoxicating, soundtrack-y musicscapes for the ages, synth-heavy but multi-faceted. The musical growth on ‘Come Of Age’ was organic, and though onstage and on paper they are a keyboards-drums-vocals band, this album is rife with guitar and bass, instruments that play a bigger role than on previous recordings. The band’s evolution is ongoing and often unearthly, spacy and provocative in the vein of Bowie’s ‘Blackstar’ (David Bowie personally cast Hall to play the lead role of Thomas Newton in his final stage project – ‘Lazarus’ on Broadway).
The album’s first single, “Shimmer,” highlights Michael C. Hall’s powerful, ethereal vocals atop quietly propulsive rhythm lines and features Stephen Trask (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) as guest guitarist. The track’s equally stunning and expansive video was directed and dreamed up by the creative mind of Tim Richardson (Elton John, Billie Eilish, Givenchy, Nike), and it’s a mystifying journey through a landscape of Michael’s memories as he reflects on a failed relationship with a film noir, 3D-twist.
Over the past few years, the New York City-based trio has been touring, recording, and self-producing and released the self-titled EP in April 2020 and a full-length debut, ‘THANKS FOR COMING’, in 2021. Sold-out tours throughout the US, UK, and Ireland have found new fans clamouring to see the eclectic band, and a flood of media attention followed. The Associated Press lauded the lineup’s “mix of glam, dreamy ‘80s New Wave, acoustic folk, Nine Inch Nails intensity,” while Billboard noted their “palpable theatricality.” Hall, Katz-Bohen and Yanowitz are seasoned performers forging new creative ground together in Princess Goes: Hall may be well-known for playing moralistic serial killer Dexter Morgan in Showtime’s hit series Dexter as well as David Fisher in HBO’s revered Six Feet Under, but he’s been singing and performing his whole life – commanding the stage with his presence as a frontman. Katz-Bohen has played with Blondie since 2008, while Yanowitz is a veteran of The Wallflowers and his own group, Morningwood.